An Open Letter to Mohammed el Kurd

Mohammed, you’ve become the human face of this war. You’re a great choice, swarthy movie-star handsome in the style of the young Omar Shariff,  far better looking than Naftali Bennett or Bibi Netanyahu.

In your beautiful unaccented English you publicly bemoan the plight of your family and your people, the residents of  Sheikh Jarrah victimized by the “Zionist colonials.” who want to remove you from your home.

Home.

Everyone deserves a home. Even you.

You evoke your grandmother. You tell us  that she has been through this before,that she’s traumatized, poor dear . The West gets a catch in its collective throat.

The evil Zionist colonials are throwing grandma out onto the street except for one thing.

You are at home. So is grandma.  Your case is being argued in a court of law, an Israeli court where there is a rule of law. No, the evil Zionist colonials don’t run kangaroo courts. You may actually win, or not.

Yes, we feel you, Mohammed. Nobody wants to go to court to keep their home.

But now let’s just flip it.

Let’s pretend that you are a Jew– that’s not so remote. Our two peoples are cousins. It’s not such a huge leap to brother.

Let’s say that you are an Israeli Jew who wanted to reclaim the house where your family lived for centuries, even millennia.

Let’s say that that house is   in  Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Iran, or in  Poland, Austria, Russia, Rumania or Ukraine.

The chances of getting it back? Almost nil.

In most Arab countries,  an Israeli Jew can’t even enter. These countries are Judenrein. Just like Nazi Gerrmany. There’s no mechanism to reclaim Jewish property, no court, no due process.

We Jews consider that the “easy” story compared to  what happened to the Jews of Europe.They were  murdered by bullets or by poison gas , Most of them don’t even lie in proper graves .  And their homes, their personal  property, family treasures and heirlooms?  Most of it is gone,  grabbed by their neighbors. Mohammed, you’ve got a grandmother. She’s even got a house. I don’t and neither do many Jews.

So what am I saying, Mohammed, that two wrongs don’t make a right?

We Israelis, descendants of the surviving remnant of the Jewish people have found refuge here in the only country in the world that is Jewish.

Yes, we inspect your people at checkpoints and roadblocks. Yes, that stinks but what else can we do.? Among your tribe are men and women who have entered our homes,  malls, and cafes, and synagogues wielding explosives, guns, butcher knives which they have used to kill us. Now they are shooting rockets at our civilian population. Two days ago,  a rocket landed on a kindergarten. Thank G-d it was empty.

Mohammed, instead telling the world how bad we are tell your people to disavow terror. Then we can talk.

Instead you use your central place on the world stage to accuse us of “ethnic cleansing.”

Really?

Where are our concentration camps and killing fields? No where.

We are bombing Gaza but we are the only country in the history of mankind that makes a conscious attempt to limit civilian casualties and we are fighting for survival.

Mohammed, if your people were to assume power, we’d be goners.  The Hamas charter calls for the “dissolution of Israel.”  Dissolution, not coexistence or even a two-state solution. Dissolution, as in ethnic cleansing or genocide.

Yes, genocide. That’s what we would be facing if G-d forbid,  Hamas or Hezbollah became our masters.

That’s why we’re fighting back. Our Torah says that when someone comes to kill you you must kill him first.

Mohammed, you are right.

It’s not nice but it’s survival.